Digital cameras typically operate by storing image information corresponding to photographs taken on media devices for subsequent viewing. Various media devices have been designed for use in the storage of image information in digital cameras. Memory Stick, utilized primarily by Sony Corporation for the storage of image information, is one such media device. SmartMedia™ is Toshiba Corporation's trademarked name for a media device that stores image information and complies with the Solid State Floppy Disk Card (SSFDC) format. Other media such as CompactFlash™ and Secured Digital (SD) Card have been developed. Each media device design has different mechanical and/or electrical characteristics.
As with the variety of different media devices designs utilized for the storage of image information, the image information itself may be stored in a variety of different formats on these media devices. The different formats for still image information are voluminous and include TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) and JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group). While any of these formats may be utilized to store still pictures, most digital cameras store the image information in the JPEG format. For moving pictures storage various possibilities for the format of stored information. These formats include AVI (Audio Video Interleave) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group).